1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a message distribution system which distributes messages transmitted/received between mobile terminals such as mobile telephones, and more particularly to a message distribution system, a server, a mobile terminal, a data storage unit, a message distribution method, and a message distribution computer program product which enable automatic embedding of content data (image data, sound data, or the like) in a message to be transmitted from a mobile terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in a mobile telephone as a mobile terminal, it is a message (mail) transmitting/receiving function among those functions other than a conversation function, that has been in frequent use among users. The use of such message transmission/reception has been accompanied by increased cases of creating unique and tasteful messages.
Among the users who utilize the message transmission/reception, creation of unique and tasteful messages by adding content data (image data, sound data, or the like) thereto has been gaining in popularity.
During message creation, the user who creates such a message usually uses a limited number of content data (image data, sound data, or the like) prestored in a user's own mobile terminal to create the message.
In the case of creating a message by using data other than the content data (image data, sound data, or the like) prestored in the mobile terminal, each user must manually download content data (image data, sound data, or the like) from a content provider's web site.
Even when the user has embedded a content data (image input, sound input, or the like) in the message body during message creation, inputs of a text and content data necessitate an operation for selecting which is to be input. Thus, the operation is complex and takes much time and labor in the message creation.
To carry out such message creation, the user must select content data (image input, sound input, or the like) by taking into consideration whether the user's own individuality is reflected or not, whether a message is tasteful or not to a recipient, and the like.
Examples of a conventional mail distribution method include technologies are disclosed in JP 2002-55933 A and JP 2002-269010 A (hereinafter, referred to as “Documents 1 and 2”, respectively).
In the mail distribution method of Document 1, the following technology is disclosed. That is, Document 1 describes a technology of prestoring content data that is previously associated with a character string on a character basis in storage means of a mail server. Additionally, Document 1 describes a technology of extracting, after a transmission source mobile terminal causes a user to select a character at the time of transmitting the mail, image data corresponding to a body of mail received by the mail server based on the character selected by the user, and embedding the extracted character in the mail. Thus, the transmission source mobile terminal does not need to select or create an image, and can embed the image data corresponding to the body of the mail and transmit the mail to a destination.
Described as the mail distribution method of Document 2 is a technology which causes a mail server to receive mail from a mail transmission terminal and to add telephone number data and map link information corresponding to position information among pieces of user information of a registered user to the electronic mail and transmit the mail. Accordingly, a transmission destination mobile terminal can start conversation with a counterpart merely by clicking the telephone number added to the mail, and obtain map information from a map information provider's web site merely by clicking the added map link information.
However, in the message mail transmission/reception of the mobile terminals described thus far, the following exemplary problems occur.
According to the conventional technology, in the case of embedding the content data (image data, sound data, or the like) in the message creation, the user must create a message by taking into consideration their own tastes, how the recipient reacts, or the like, and consequently more time and labor are necessary for the creation.
According to the method of Document 1, the content data that is previously associated with the character string on a character basis is prestored in the storage means. After the user selects the character at the time of transmitting the mail, the mail server extracts the image data corresponding to the body of the created mail based on the selected character, and embeds the extracted image data in the mail. Thus, the method of Document 1 has a problem that the user's personal information (age, occupation, and the like) are not reflected on the image data, and a problem that often the used favorite image data is not always selected automatically.
According to the method of Document 2, the user information is not processed with the contents of the message set as user information history. Therefore, a problem arises in that it is impossible to embed image data according to tastes incomprehensible at the time of user's initial registration due to changes in the transmitted message contents or according to changes of user's tastes which occur from time to time.